Keeping football drug free
If you’re serious about your performance on the field you need to avoid using recreational drugs and substances described as ‘performance enhancing. Firstly they’re illegal. Secondly, using these substances is ‘cheating’. But equally, the long-term effects on health are not fully known. For example, highly addictive cocaine, can cause seizures and strokes as well as liver damage and other adverse reactions. Basketballer Len Bias and American footballer Don Rogers are just two athletes who died as a result of cocaine-related heart failure.
Also for the sake of your health and performance, avoid heavy drinking - alcohol abuse worsens the problem.
Don’t let a careless decision ruin your career or your health.
What should you be wary of?
- Supplements advertising 'muscle building' or 'fat burning' capabilities are the most likely to contain banned substances, either an anabolic agent or a stimulant
- The terms 'herbal' or 'natural' don’t necessarily mean the product is safe.
- Amphetamine(s), which are also contained in 'street drugs' such as ecstasy
- Pure vitamins and minerals aren’t banned on their own but use reputable brands and be wary of those combined with other substances
- Creatine is not prohibited but particular brands can’t be guaranteed.
- Black market or unlabelled products - don't use anything that has an unknown source, even if it comes from a coach or fellow athlete.
Points to consider:
- The right training and diet are the key ingredients to maximising your performance
- Remember, the primary motivation for most people selling supplements is to make a profit
- A significant number of positive tests recorded by Drug Free Sport NZ (DFSNZ) result from supplement use.
What can you do?
- Contact a NZ Academy of Sport approved sports nutritionist or sports doctor for objective advice on whether you need supplements.
- If you decide you need to use a supplement, use products from New Zealand or Australian companies that have a good reputation and design their products for 'sports people', rather than gym members or the general public who are not concerned about testing positive. Don't be afraid to contact the manufacturers for more information.
- Contact DFSNZ by e-mail or fax with a full list of ingredients. They will not ultimately guarantee any supplement but will at least try to identify whether any of the ingredients listed are banned.
- The Australian Institute of Sport also provides good information on supplements in the sports science section of their web site at www.ais.org.au
Take nutritional supplements at your own risk
- Nutritional supplements are not regulated in the same way as pharmaceuticals.
- Labelling may not be full or accurate
- Substances that are not banned themselves may be combined with substances that are banned.
Drug Free Sport NZ provides a wide range of material about banned substances and testing procedures and policies. Whatever your level of play, check out the Drug Free Sport website (www.drugfreesport.org.nz) before you take any medications, supplements or other substances.
If you’re involved in higher levels of competition, use the website to guide you through the process of a drug test and to keep your details up to date on the Drug Free Sport NZ register.
The Footballers’ Hall of Shame
Football has had its share of high profile substance abusers. Here are a few of the more well known cases where drug taking has impacted careers and lives.
Rio Ferdinand
Banned for eight months and fined £50,000 by the Football
Association after being found guilty of missing a drugs test.
Abel Xavier
Middlesborough defender suspended by FIFA from all football for failing a drugs test
.
Shaun Newton
West Ham United midfielder banned from football for seven months after testing positive for cocaine.
Frank McAvennie
Distinguished striker with Celtic, West Ham and Scotland during the 1980s but career tarnished by a cocaine habit.
Willie Johnston
Scottish International who failed a mandatory drugs test and
sent home from the World Cup. Always claims he took nothing more than a decongestant for hay fever.
Jamie Stuart
England Under-21 team-mate of David Beckham and Lee
Bowyer but positive tests for marijuana and cocaine resulted in a six-month ban and a gradual spiral down the football ranks.
Diego Maradona
The greatest player of his generation but perhaps now more
well known for his cocaine addiction and positive tests for ephedrine, a stimulant found in some weight-loss products.
Jaap Stam
Former Manchester United defender tested positive for nandrolone, a performance-enhancing anabolic steroid. Protested his innocence but was fined £30,000 and suspended for five months. The drug was also found in the systems of his fellow Dutch internationals, Frank De Boer and Edgar Davids.
Kevin Thomas
Former Scotland Under-21 midfielder snorted cocaine at a Christmas party and was sacked. Eventually won an appeal for unfair dismissal but played out his career at Berwick and Montrose.
Mark Bosnich
Arguably the British game's highest-profile drug casualty. The detection of cocaine traces cost the Australian goalkeeper his career at Chelsea. Claimed his drink was spiked in a nightclub but lost his appeal against an FA ban and later admitted a £3,000-a-week addiction.
Roger Stanislaus
Looked set for a bright career when Arsenal signed him as a teenager. Drifted down the divisions and became the first player to test positive for a performance-enhancing drug – cocaine. Sacked for his offence and failed to resurface in League football.
